Footlight Parade (1933)

Footlight Parade
Directed by Lloyd Bacon; dance direction by Busby Berkeley
Written by Manuel Seff and James Seymour
1933/US
Warner Bros.
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Nan Prescott: You scram, before I wrap a chair around your neck!
Vivian Rich: [Angrily] It’s three o’clock in the morning – where do you want me to go?
[Nan starts to speak, but Vivian immediately cuts her off]
Vivian Rich: You cheap stenographer…
Nan Prescott: Outside, countess. As long as they’ve got sidewalks YOU’VE got a job.
[Shoves her out, gives her a swift kick in the rump, and slams the door behind her]

James Cagney plays a Broadway musical director who finds he must bend to the times and produce musical prologues for talking pictures instead. Joan Blondell is his assistant and is secretly in love with him. Ruby Keeler is another secretary who dresses like a plain Jane but has unknown talents as singer and dancer. The show’s backers see that Dick Powell gets a job in the chorus but he rapidly moves to having a principal part paired with Ruby. With Guy Kibbe, Ruth Donnelly, Frank McHugh and Hugh Herbert.

Most of the musical numbers are at the end of the film. The comedy getting there is a lot of fun too. James Cagney shows off his dancing chops and boy does he have them. The Busby Berkley numbers must be seen to be believed. My husband actually gave this one a round of applause – a super rare reaction from him.

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I also watched Victor Fleming’s Red Dust (1932).  All the enthusiasm I had in my 2018 review still applies.  This contains probably my favorite performance by Jean Harlow.